The Best of the Mini Garden Gazette and a Happy New Year!

That’s a lot of newsletters!

I can safely say, despite the ginormous size of the Internet and the millions of people creating content each and every day, the Mini Garden Gazette is still the ONLY newsletter for the new hobby of gardening in miniature. I’ve been publishing almost every week since 2004.

I think I need a nap.

BUT, the most impressive part – the part that I’M impressed with the most because I didn’t know I had “it” in me – is how I come up with a new Gazette almost every week. Read what comments of encouragement that I’ve received over the years here.

Okay, there was ONE phase where I didn’t publish for a few weeks to recover from burnout after the shutdown ended. AND yes, my Mini Garden Gazette isn’t for everyone. I did get a complaint once. Lol!

Now for Zee Best ‘o’ the Best!

So, grab a cuppa and join me to today for a short – but hopefully inspiring – romp through the just a few of the photos from 2024’s Mini Garden Gazettes. I included some insight and details for your miniature gardening info-tainment because I obviously can NOT stop teaching and bragging about just how wonderful this hobby is. Not subscribe to get your FREE Gazette yet? Join us here.

Leave a comment for a FREE GIFT – a PDF download of our ebook “How to Build a Long-Lasting Miniature Garden in a Pot” – I’ll email to the address you comment with. You can see just how easy it is to include a “little” miniature garden charm in your everyday life.

Miniature Gardening from a Can?

**Miniature Garden From Concentrate!** My joke label that no one seems to fall for! I should do a full blog on this idea because it was so fun to do. The label includes nutrition info, calorie counts and a recipe. :o)

An Oldie but a Goodie

**From the Archived Archives!** This miniature garden is from waaaaay back in 2002-ish, when I was just starting to spread the idea of a miniature garden – before it was even “a thing.” That wonderful bowl was a water bowl I drilled for drainage, it’s about 22″ (56cm) in diameter and about 10 inches deep. A miniature garden can last for years in a pot this size.

You Can “Play” with this Garden

**A Lunar New Year Miniature Garden** – 2024 was the Year of the Dragon and, there just happened to be some dragons in our online store… the pot is painted terra cotta and it’s about 10″ wide or 25.4 cm. The tree is a Golden Dwarf English Yew. To the left of the Yew is a perennial ground cover, Cranesbill (Erodium,) and the colorful bedding plants on the right is a combination of Miniature Daises (Bellium minuta) and Sedum cuttings. This garden has been together for about 6 years now.

Naturally Aged…

**One of the Many Things** I enjoy about the hobby is how some of the accessories age naturally. Many miniaturists go to extreme lengths to “weather” their miniatures to make the look like they are old and used. In our miniature gardens, we don’t seem to have that problem. Lol! (That fantastic park bench is discontinued.) See our Pot and Tool Department here.

There are No Tricks

**How Sweet It Is:** There is that miniature garden magic! It’s not magic though: we use true miniature and dwarf trees and shrubs and pair them with small-leafed, (somewhat) well-behaved ground covers. But it really is the miniature patio and in-scale miniature accessories ***that cinch the scale for the viewer and create the “magic.”***

There is Always Room for a Miniature Garden

**Some small perennials** can stand-in for “full-sized” plants. The Hens and Chicks (the “big” rosettes) shown above can easily be Agave plants in the garden bed. What works to pull the scene into miniature: the small-leafed ground cover thyme (in front of the frog,) the bench and the wee hint of a tiny patio. Then when the viewer takes-in the other accents, like the frog statue, the pedestal and the trellis, it usually results in smiles and giggles. Find most plant and accessories shown above here.

It Fits Endless Themes

**You can have more fun with a miniature garden** than you can with a full-sized garden AND you can take it with you! DIY banners, customized miniatures, handmade accessories are the “craft” part of the hobby that can keep you happily creative all year long – even in an election year. (Maybe I should send all our politicians my Gardening in Miniature book – they prolly need it. Lol!)

An Obsessed Miniature Gardener

**Out-standing on her lanai!!** Yeah, that’s me, Janit, with just a couple of my miniature gardens. I often tell people I shouldn’t be in this business because I love the idea so much. I’m like a kid in a candy store when it comes to all things “miniature garden.” To see more of everything: MiniatureGarden.com

It’s Not Bonsai

**The Jervis Hemlock** remains a favorite for me. Some folks will tell you that miniature gardening is another term for bonsai which is not correct. When you hear that, it means that they’ve never grown a miniature garden before. Bonsai is a LOT harder, you need to be completely dedicated to the trees and tend to them everyday and, the number 1 cause of bonsai death in my humble opinion? Going on vacation and leaving the bonsai in someone else’s care.

A lot of the true miniature and slow-growing dwarf conifers that we specialize in grow so slowly into “majestic” miniature trees with next to NO PRUNING. This Jervis Canada Hemlock naturally grew into this lovely tree. I only prune for maintenance and over all shape (- I should trim that right-most branch back a bit this winter so it’s balanced with the other.) ***There are no “tricks” – that just how our true miniature and dwarf conifers grow.***

Any Size, Any Shape, Almost Anywhere

A gathering of miniature gardens for a Halloween display. A miniature garden can be a small as 4″ across, or, our biggest one yet is about 12 feet long and 4 feet deep. See that miniature garden in the back/center – it’s the Jervis Hemlock garden shown above but, with different accessories, it has a completely different personality. Change your accessories, change your garden!

Amaze Your Friends and Impress Your Neighbors

Spooky, I know!! You can either go a bit nuts with the miniature accessories or not. The miniature garden only needs one miniature accessory and a mini patio to tell the view what’s going on. Without them, it’s just small plants in a pot.

A Miniature Garden Can Last for Years

Scroll back up to the miniature garden with the vote banner and you’ll see the same garden except the Saxifrage (Dancing Pixies Toni Saxifrage – Saxifraga cortusifolia) isn’t in bloom. The tree is the Variegated Boxwood, the grass is Dwarf Mondo Grass. You can see the patio is starting to collect moss in its crack naturally.

Winter Holly Days in Mini

One of the “wins” for this past year was cracking the code for miniature gardening indoors. After many years of killing indoor plants, I finally figured it out. The branches coming down from above is the Norfolk Pine. The palm-type leaves are small Parlor Palm and that yellow-y plant is the Golden Baby Tears. All my research is kept in the Miniature Garden Society here.

Down the Path and Through the Garden

**Coming from the Evergreen State of Washington** in the great Pacific Northwest, this is how our “green Christmas” usually looks. The miniature patio is walkable, so I can use it to get into the garden for weeding and maintenance. It’s put together with my Mini Patio Mix that works with all kinds of stone, marble, tile and brick.

Miniaturizing the Garden, Since 2001

This miniature pot reindeer is 1 ½” tall. Why? Because we can.

If you’re looking to level-up, dig-in or to just get started with this new hobby of Gardening in Miniature – this is it. As I said before, there is no other website or miniature gardener spreading the joy – yet. Join us here – it’s FREE.

And have a Very Happy New Year!

…I still think I need a nap. Lol!